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Twilight Zone on Netflix...
Jun. 1st, 2015 03:20 pmOne of the old classics, that I saw once or twice, but never saw in a significant block.
I was so excited by the chance to see they have it in HD, and this was my first chance to watch it on a color screen and... right.
(I was born in 1966. Lots of people still had black-and-whites in the early 70s. They were cheaper!)
One of the things I like doing is seeing how they told stories, especially in a half-hour back then. And I got to see some of the good episodes.
There's one where a pitch man (a guy who sells sundries on the street by convincing people they need them) who makes a deal with Death - he's never made a really big pitch. Can he have an extension until he does? Well sure - and he plans never to make another. Well - if you haven't heard the plot, I'm sure you can almost guess it: he'll have to make that pitch to save someone else's life. It's silly and schmaltzy, and pretty darn good for a half hour story.
There's one that a friend of mine despised. This poor sorry guy can't just settle down and read - his wife even ruined some of his books because he wouldn't stop reading them when she couldn't control him! Then, because he hid in the bank vault and read during his lunch hour, he's the only one alive after a nuclear war. He's starts off lonely, and crazy with boredom, until he realizes there's an undamaged library, and... and his (extremely thick) glasses break, just as he has his books all piled up and planned out. He can't read at all.
It was a nasty, nasty episode, she said. And you know? I agree. But I'll give the writers this: they were making a world where a nuclear war was going to be a complete nightmare - even the tiny bits of joy you might find could be ruined!
So, while I agree it's a nasty episode, one I hate, it's also good art. (Not *great* art. But good.) It expresses what it wants to get across in an emotionally evocative way.
I bet fan-ficcers of the day tweeted their outrage and included Facebook links to alternate endings... what? Oh, okay, yes, it was *long* ago, so *LiveJournalers*, are you happy now? No?
Geez, no satisfying some people.
Anyway. If you're looking for a nostalgia binge, or want to see one of the classics, it's out there.
I was so excited by the chance to see they have it in HD, and this was my first chance to watch it on a color screen and... right.
(I was born in 1966. Lots of people still had black-and-whites in the early 70s. They were cheaper!)
One of the things I like doing is seeing how they told stories, especially in a half-hour back then. And I got to see some of the good episodes.
There's one where a pitch man (a guy who sells sundries on the street by convincing people they need them) who makes a deal with Death - he's never made a really big pitch. Can he have an extension until he does? Well sure - and he plans never to make another. Well - if you haven't heard the plot, I'm sure you can almost guess it: he'll have to make that pitch to save someone else's life. It's silly and schmaltzy, and pretty darn good for a half hour story.
There's one that a friend of mine despised. This poor sorry guy can't just settle down and read - his wife even ruined some of his books because he wouldn't stop reading them when she couldn't control him! Then, because he hid in the bank vault and read during his lunch hour, he's the only one alive after a nuclear war. He's starts off lonely, and crazy with boredom, until he realizes there's an undamaged library, and... and his (extremely thick) glasses break, just as he has his books all piled up and planned out. He can't read at all.
It was a nasty, nasty episode, she said. And you know? I agree. But I'll give the writers this: they were making a world where a nuclear war was going to be a complete nightmare - even the tiny bits of joy you might find could be ruined!
So, while I agree it's a nasty episode, one I hate, it's also good art. (Not *great* art. But good.) It expresses what it wants to get across in an emotionally evocative way.
I bet fan-ficcers of the day tweeted their outrage and included Facebook links to alternate endings... what? Oh, okay, yes, it was *long* ago, so *LiveJournalers*, are you happy now? No?
Geez, no satisfying some people.
Anyway. If you're looking for a nostalgia binge, or want to see one of the classics, it's out there.
